The economic and population growth of our nation, and the improvements in the standard of living enjoyed by our population, have required increased industrial production to meet our needs, which, together with related commercial, and agricultural operations, have resulted in a rising tide of scrap, discarded, and waste materials. Continuing technological progress and improvement in methods of manufacture, packaging, and marketing of consumer products has resulted in an ever-mounting increase, and in a change in the characteristics, of the mass material discarded by the purchaser of such products.
The concentration of our population in expanding metropolitan and other urban areas has presented these communities with serious financial, management, intergovernmental, and technical problems in the disposal of solid wastes resulting from the industrial, commercial, domestic, and other activities carried on in such areas. Disposal of hazardous and solid waste in or on the land without careful planning and management can present a danger to human health and the environment. Millions of tons of recovered material which could be used are needlessly buried each year. The recovery and conservation of such materials can reduce the dependence of the United States on foreign resources and reduce the deficit in its balance of payments. Further, container recovery represents a potentially significant means for energy conservation.
Article containers represent a substantial portion of the solid waste stream and are the focus of considerable attention. Legislation banning or taxing nonreturnable beverage containers has been the most popular type of source reduction proposal. Although several bills have been introduced in the U.S. Congress, more activity has taken place at the state and local levels. Legislation has been introduced in 50 state legislatures and numerous county and city councils since 1971. As of mid-1975, three states, Oregon, Vermont, and South Dakota, had a law affecting all major types of packaging wastes. Ordinances affecting beverage containers have been passed in such localities as Oberlin, Ohio, London County, Virginia, and Bowie, Maryland, although implementation has been slow due to legal challenges. A mandatory deposit law has been in effect in Oregon since Oct. 1, 1972. A minimum 2-cent refund for beer, malt beverage, and carbonated soft drink containers certified for reuse by more than one manufacturer and a 5-cent refund for all other beverage containers are required.
Previous efforts to obtain the potential material and energy savings and the reduction of environmental damage associated with article container disposal and recovery have been unsuccessful for economic, social or technological reasons. It is widely believed as evidenced in numerous Federal and private reports and Congressional testimony that a mandatory deposit system for beverage containers will result in widespread market disruption in the production use and distribution network for containers and beverages, and in the metal and glass producing industries which provide the material stocks for containers. This expected market disruption would be accompanied by employment and financial losses to individuals, business organizations and selected local communities. To a substantial degree such views have been confirmed in the results of deposit beverage requirements in Oregon, Vermont, and elsewhere. Thus, at present there is not a means for achieving the environmental and resource conservation and recovery objectives without widespread economic disruption.
It is the purpose of this invention to provide a technologically feasible and cost effective means of recovering containers for subsequent reuse and/or recycling and/or collection for ultimate disposal of non-reusable materials in an environmentally benefitial manner. It provides methods of collecting, sorting, identifying and processing used containers which economizes the efficient use of facilities and contributes to the reduction, reuse and disposal of used containers. It provides means to compensate returnees of used containers, and to record such transactions. It provides a versatile means to recover used containers at the point of article sale, and at subsequent stages after the container is no longer of use as an article container to the article purchaser.